That commissioner does not have the power to unilaterally suspend humanitarian aid. So he didn’t.
The meeting is tomorrow, it hasn’t happened yet. Long term aid isn’t going in to Gaza. Not least because EU funded infrastructure is usually first on the Israeli bomb lists and putting anything into a target isn’t a great idea.
And water. Their drinking water depends on the fuel that runs the sewage decontamination. The fuel has been cut off (it was already perilously short so I doubt they have much stored, and if they did it will be an obvious target for Israel).
The Israeli military has said there is no concrete evidence of Iranian involvement in the Hamas attack from Gaza, after denials issued by the Iranian foreign ministry.
But…
Iran helped Hamas plan its surprise attacks against Israel over the weekend, according to senior members of Hamas and Hezbollah who spoke to the Wall Street Journal. Details of the operation were refined during several meetings in Beirut attended by IRGC officers and representatives of four Iran-backed militant groups, including Hamas, which holds power in Gaza, and Hezbollah, they said. US secretary of state, Antony Blinken has however said that Washington had not seen any evidence that Iran was behind the attack.
Contrary to what many Israelis are saying, and while the army was clearly caught completely off guard by this invasion, this is not a “unilateral” or “unprovoked” attack. The dread Israelis are feeling right now, myself included, is a sliver of what Palestinians have been feeling on a daily basis under the decades-long military regime in the West Bank, and under the siege and repeated assaults on Gaza.
Read the whole thing. There is no paywall.
As I write these words, I am sitting at home in Tel Aviv, trying to figure out how to protect my family in a house with no shelter or safe room, following with growing panic the reports and rumors of horrible events taking place in the Israeli towns near Gaza which are under attack. I see people, some of them my friends, calling on social media to attack Gaza more fiercely than ever before. Some Israelis are saying that now is the time to eradicate Gaza entirely — essentially calling for genocide. Through all the explosions, the dread and the bloodshed, speaking about peaceful solutions seems like madness to them.
Yet I remember that everything that I am feeling now, which every Israeli must be sharing, has been the life experience of millions of Palestinians for far too long. The only solution, as it has always been, is to bring an end of apartheid, occupation, and siege, and promote a future based on justice and equality for all of us. It is not in spite of the horror that we have to change course — it is exactly because of it.
The European Commission have finally issued a statement offering clarification of an announcement that it was suspending “all payments” to Palestine in the wake of the Hamas attack.
It said it was “launching an urgent review of the EU’s assistance for Palestine”.
In addition to existing safeguards to ensure no money goes to Hamas-backed projects, “the objective of this review is to ensure that no EU funding indirectly enables any terrorist organization to carry out attacks against Israel”.
The Commission will equally review if, in light of the changed circumstances on the ground, its support programmes to the Palestinian population and to the Palestinian Authority need to be adjusted.
The Commission will carry out this review as soon as possible and coordinate with Member States and partners any follow up action necessary, it said.
It stated:
In the meantime, as there were no payments foreseen, there will be no suspension of payments,” without offering any details as to what this referred to or would mean.
This review does not concern humanitarian assistance provided under European Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid Operations (ECHO).
I guess so, I more meant the way the blame shifted in the last paragraph, making it look like the Palestinians started it all and deserve to be treated this way. There’s no way that attitude helps anyone.
It’s not the end of the article, and I read it as Hagai Mattar speaking to his fellow Israelis: if you wonder how Palestinians can justify killing civilians or call for the destruction of Israel, just listen to your own words.
Be careful with selective quoting, as it can work against your best intentions. Arguably, most people online don’t (or, more unfortunately, won’t) read whole articles for the full context.
